Sunday, January 17, 2010

It appears we are now abandoning seriously injured quake victims due to "security concerns".

Earthquake victims, writhing in pain and grasping at life, watched doctors and nurses walk away from a field hospital Friday night after a Belgian medical team evacuated the area, saying it was concerned about security.

The decision left CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Sanjay Gupta as the only doctor at the hospital to get the patients through the night.

CNN initially reported, based on conversations with some of the doctors, that the United Nations ordered the Belgian First Aid and Support Team to evacuate. However, Belgian Chief Coordinator Geert Gijs, a doctor who was at the hospital with 60 Belgian medical personnel, said it was his decision to pull the team out for the night. Gijs said he requested U.N. security personnel to staff the hospital overnight, but was told that peacekeepers would only be able to evacuate the team.

He said it was a "tough decision" but that he accepted the U.N. offer to evacuate after a Canadian medical team, also at the hospital with Canadian security officers, left the site Friday afternoon. The Belgian team returned Saturday morning.

So obviously they all got ordered out. Say what you want about Belgians, Canadian military doesn't abandon wounded civilians without orders. Pretty hefty orders too. Shades of Romeo Dallaire in Rwanda, I swear.

Two questions occur to me.

why aren't all these medical personnel ARMED? Like, with GUNS? As in, with real bullets in them?

what kind of military hospital installation isn't guarded in a riot zone? Are you kidding me?

The shouted answer comes racketing back: BECAUSE THE UN IS IN CHARGE! DUH!

Quote of the new century goes to Lt. Gen. Russel "You are stuck on stupid!" Honore:

Retired Army Lt. Gen. Russel Honore, who led relief efforts for Hurricane Katrina in 2005, said the evacuation of the clinic's medical staff was unforgivable.

"Search and rescue must trump security," Honoré said. "I've never seen anything like this before in my life. They need to man up and get back in there."

Honoré drew parallels between the tragedy in New Orleans, Louisiana, and in Port-au-Prince. But even in the chaos of Katrina, he said, he had never seen medical staff walk away.

"I find this astonishing these doctors left," he said. "People are scared of the poor."

F-in' A, General sir.

Also, Sanjay Gupta and his CNN camera crew win the Phantom's "Balls Of Steel!" award for today. Way to have a pair, Dr. Gupta and team! Non-government guy steps up where government issue WUSSES fear to tread.

Monday, January 11, 2010

"There is a long history of tripled oil prices causing consternation among consumers," Peter Beutel of Cameron Hanover said in a report Monday. "We are not there, yet, but gasoline prices at more than $3.00 is certainly an unwelcome sign of consumer distress."

Prices rose 1.4 cents overnight to $2.749 per gallon, according to auto club AAA, Wright Express and Oil Price Information Service. Prices have climbed 8.4 cents a gallon in the past week and are 95.5 cents higher than a year ago.

Frankly, I'd be so happy to pay three dollars a gallon I could almost plotz. My last fill up was $0.97 a liter. That's a quart for those of you living in civilized countries not cursed with metric. Not even a proper Imperial quart mind you, but a lowly American quart. Think of it my American friends, ninety seven cents aquart. Times four is $3.88 a gallon. Of which three quarters is... wait for IT... tax. Which tax is not a fixed portion, oh no no noooo! It is a PERCENTAGE of the fuel price. So as the price goes up, the amount of tax goes up proportionately. As in, in ever increasing amounts, never to be reduced one iota for any reason no matter how bad it gets forget it don't even ask we can't hear you lalalalala!!!.

But it is actually worse than that, because a goodly portion of what is called the "fuel price" is actually... tax! (You think oil companies take taxes, fees and royalties out of their profit? BWAHAHAAAA! No, they pass it directly on to the fuel buyer!) Plus there is a ten cent per liter excise tax in there, meaning you are paying tax... on tax... on tax!! Its a legislative tour de force, a perfect storm of shearing the sheeple right down to the bone.

But worry not ladies and gentlemen of America, you too will soon be paying these kinds of obscene prices for gasoline, heating oil, diesel, and etc. How else do you think they are going to pay for Obamacare? And Government Motors? And the twelve trillion blank check congress wrote for Barry? And the new government owned banking system? And ACORN? And those death panels, and Mrs. Obama's spring wardrobe, and...

Dropping the exam would bolster minority hiring and avert legal battles, according to one source, while others confirm that the exam could be scrapped to open the process to as many people as possible.

CBS 2 has learned that when an unidentified man breached a secure area at Newark on Sunday night, delaying thousands of passengers for hours, the TSA cameras weren't working.

That's right – they weren't even recording, sources said, and needed a reboot, which the agency apparently didn't ask for. That set off a chain reaction of even more missteps that caused needless chaos and inconvenience for several thousand hapless passengers.

With the cameras inoperable, the TSA tried to get a second set of surveillance video from Continental Airlines. But the TSA apparently didn't know the correct telephone number and the specific procedures to get the footage. That caused a two hour delay in identifying the intruder and closing the airport to look for him.

So, nothing important. 10,000 people trapped in an airport with a suspected terrorist present is just business as usual.